Saturday, 11 May 2013

Warriors Do The Double Over City Reds

Wigan raced three points clear at the top of the Super League with a comfortable win not affected by four missed conversions on the way to a 40 point victory over Salford.

Wigan flew out of the blocks with a try inside two minutes after a nice pass by Tomkins sent Goulding away down the win and his offload to Charnley allowed the winger to go over for an easy try but with Richards missing the kicking duties went to Smith who missed the first attempt as Wigan led 4-0.

The lead increased six minutes later as O'Loughlin offloaded to Flower who slipped past Sneyd and over for the try but Smith's second miss put Wigan at 8-0 instead of a possible 12.

Salford were in danger of behind left behind as in the 14th minute, Wigan hit their third try as an intercept by Charnley started a great move which saw a run from Green and a superb pass for Gelling to dive over in the corner for the try but as Smith missed the conversion, Gelling left the field with an injury and was replaced by Hughes with Thornley going out to the wing. 12-0

Lauaki's return to the team saw him make an instant impact as his first touch saw him put Wigan in a good position before being tackled and the next move saw the ball come to Tomkins who sidestepped before touching down for the try and Smith's luck deserted him as another conversion went begging and Wigan led 16-0.

Salford pressured forward and forced a goal-line dropout which was well kicked by Wigan and put Salford on the back foot and a combination of Green and Tomkins put Farrell in for his traditional weekly try and Wigan pushed to 22-0 ahead at the break.

Wigan started the second half well and could have had an early try for Hansen who raced clear and right on the try line was tackled by some great chasing defence by Salford but the lead did increase as Tomkins offloaded to Charnley who went in for his second of the night and he converted his own try for a 28-0 lead.

Salford were struggling to get the ball back and Wigan raced forward again and Flower supplied Mossop who went over for his first try since announcing his departure to Paramatta next year and Charnley converted again as Wigan went to 34-0.

Charnley returned the favour for the earlier assist from Tomkins by supplying the full back with a nice pass to seal his second try of the night and Charnley's fourth conversion sent Wigan to the 40 point mark.

Wigan finished their scoring in the 72nd minute as Green ran over for a try which was converted by Charnley who had 100% success from the boot after taking over from the injured Smith but the night ended with Salford preventing a consecutive nilling by Wigan with a well worked try in the 78th minute as Walne went over and Sneyd's conversion put the score at 46-6.

Wigan celebrated a seventh consecutive win as the hooter sounded and can look forward to a break from the league with a trip to Hull KR in the Challenge Cup on Sunday.

Prediction wise, I was close with 42-10 as a 4 point swing difference enabled me to win some money with a nice bet of a 32-40 point gap.